Elizabeth Budd, PhD, MPH

Dr. Liz Budd is an Evergreen Associate Professor in the Counseling Psychology and Human Services Department within the College of Education at the University of Oregon. Dr. Budd is a member of the Health Promotion Initiative and Prevention Science Institute. She teaches and does research from a public health perspective. Her primary goal is to prevent chronic diseases (e.g., type 2 diabetes, heart disease, several types of cancer) among populations with heightened risk for such diseases. She is interested in policy and how social and physical environments influence physical activity and healthy eating, especially among youth, adolescents, and Latino/a/e/x communities. Examples of recent research projects include:

  • developing and testing the effectiveness of a workshop to address body size stigma and discrimination in the workplace;
  • studying the links among nature exposure, health behaviors (e.g., physical activity, sleep) and stress among adolescents using novel objective measurement tools;
  • synthesizing the literature on the impact of physical activity prescriptions on youth’s physical activity engagement;
  • investigating social (e.g., racial discrimination stress) and environmental (e.g., neighborhood walkability) correlates of health behaviors and chronic diseases among a national sample of U.S. Latinx adults;
  • developing and testing the effectiveness of a culturally tailored and trauma-informed intervention to increase access to and engagement in SARS-CoV-2 testing among Latinx communities across Oregon; and
  • identifying the strongest social determinants of health predictors of engagement in COVID-19 preventive services among sub-groups within Latinx communities.

Dr. Budd encourages graduate and undergraduate students to get involved in health promotion research and to start by inquiring via email about current or future opportunities.